Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
San Diego Coffee Roasting and Retailing Company Better Coffee Buzz rang in the modern year with a bang by opening its most ambitious and imaginative store yet: a two-story, 7,500-person coffee roastery in Hillcrest.
The brilliant, open shop — the third Better Buzz to open in the past year and the eighth overall — includes a central bar, an upstairs workout bar and public lounge areas, among other amenities. But the driving force behind the modern Better Buzz is the 22-kilogram Probat roastery, built in 1951.
Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
“We wanted to buy a pre-1958 Probat roaster because of its special features—the cast iron body, the patented airflow system,” Erin Hudek of Better Buzz told Daily Coffee, adding that the machine took about a year to restore. “We’re very excited to have one of the few that are in the States right now.”
The historic machine is a fitting addition to the historic building, which was built in 1919 as a surgical annex to St. Joseph Hospital. The building had been vacant for some time before the company took the first steps toward negotiating the property five years ago.
“Everyone in the community is super excited that something is finally there,” Hudek said. “Especially something as amazing as Better Buzz. It was just a vacant, kind of rundown historic building. We were able to fully restore it. It looks amazing now.”
Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
The brilliant, open space with contemporary fixtures and eclectic lighting is anchored by a U-shaped bar on the ground floor, where there’s plenty of seating, as well as a meeting room available for hire. Dual espresso and coffee stations behind the bar offer a menu of time-honored drinks alongside more sophisticated concoctions like lemon cool brew, turmeric lattes and other flavoured drinks.
On the side of the bar that the company calls “purist”—where the focus is on single-origin espressos, smaller time-honored drinks, and manual pour-overs—are Curtis Seraphim stations, a La Marzocco Strada MP espresso machine, three Mazzer Kony grinders, and a Mahlkonig EKK43 for grinding coffee. The opposite side, “handmade specialties,” includes a La Marzocco GB3AV machine, while another La Marzocco GB5 station and a Mazzer Kony are used for training, education, and recipe development.
Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
Meanwhile, in Vista, Calif., the company’s main roastery continues to produce 100-pound batches on its Diedrich CV45, reaching a total throughput of about 2,500 pounds per week. That number is likely to remain steady for now.
“What we want to focus on now is improving the overall quality of all of our stores, because we opened three modern stores last year,” said David Ennis, Better Buzz Coffee Store coordinator, noting the Pacific Beach West location that opened last February, the Fashion Valley Mall location that went from a kiosk to a full-fledged store last fall for Black Friday, and the modern Hillcrest location.
Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
Better Buzz Hillcrest Roastery is now open 801 University Ave in San Diego.
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Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
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Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
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Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
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Photo courtesy of Better Buzz Coffee.
Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the deputy editor of Daily Coffee News at Roast Magazine. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
